Star Trek Prometheus: In the Heart of Chaos by
Bernd Perplies

The original USS Enterprise was sent out on a five year mission to explore Space, but even the biggest Star Trek fan would not want to know about every single detail that happened on the voyage. We can forgo the times that they slept or went to the loo. Perhaps even skip a few lengthy sessions between colleagues spouting technobabble. The Star Trek Prometheus trilogy feels differently and sometimes put every extraneous detail was on the page, but now book three is in sight, things are starting to finally happen.

The crew of the USS Prometheus are aware by now that the mysterious terrorist group that has been carrying out acts of mass genocide against both the Federation and her enemies are from the Lembatta Cluster, but they do not know why a once peaceful people have turned violent. It appears that a far more ancient being may be in play who is distorting the reality of anyone within its grasp. Can the crew resolve the issue before the Klingons turn up and use their own sense of diplomacy? Big guns and Bat’leth.

The three books that make up Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg’s trilogy have not been the paciest of affairs and arguably book two, The Root of all Rage, had more filler than a poor handyman trying to retile your bathroom. Thankfully, In the Heart of Chaos finally gets to the point and gives the reader the types of resolutions they have been craving.

It is not long into this book that we learn more about the maleficent being that is the true source behind all the destruction in the Lembatta Cluster, but in true Trek style not everything is as it seems. Perplies and Humberg are obviously fans of Trek and stick to some of the tried and tested elements that have made the show popular over the years. There is a very 90s feel the crew of the Prometheus as they need to look beyond the narrow confines of our known science to find a solution.

Towards the end, the narrative splits into two as the Federation and Klingon crews undertake separate missions that are in theory aligned, but in reality, not. The finale is a good race against the clock to see who will be successful first. You also get a very satisfactory Trek conclusion that uses the type of idea that Picard and co. would have been proud of.

As a set of books Chaos et al. have their issues, but this outing makes up for a lot of the slow start by packing the punches you have been waiting for. Perplies and Humberg are at times too respectful of the shows and seem to want to make their own version of a Next Generation episode. Not one of the great ones, but an episode that was made to fill a spot and save a bit on the budget. Fans of Star Trek detail will take the most from this book as it harks back to a time before the movie reboots and Discovery, to a simpler era that suggested all you needed to save the day was a load of technobabble. Although something was lost in translation, Chaos is a fun book, but you cannot escape the feeling that the trilogy would have been better served as a brace or perhaps even a single chunky tome.

Written on 14th February 2019 by Sam Tyler.

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